The advertising industry is undergoing a seismic transformation, with digital channels reshaping the landscape and dominating ad spend. With their ability to deliver granular audience targeting, real-time analytics, and dynamic scalability, digital advertising has set a new standard for the industry. Moreover, they have transformed how ads are created and delivered while redefining consumer expectations, forcing advertisers to adopt innovative and agile strategies to stay relevant in the digital age.
Looking at Group M’s This Year Next Year: 2024 Global End of Year Forecast, digital advertising has emerged as the largest segment of global advertising revenue, poised to account for 72.9% of total ad spend by the end of the year and an estimated 76.8% by 2029. As digital channels continue to dominate ad spending, out-of-home (OOH) advertising finds itself at a pivotal moment. It’s never been more important for OOH to modernize and embrace flexibility, adopt innovative technology, and meet the evolving expectations of modern media buyers.
The challenge: Adapting to digital-first demands
Addressable advertising—where personalized messages are tailored to specific audience segments—has become the norm, reshaping expectations across all media formats. Advertisers today, particularly those well-versed in digital-first strategies, now expect:
- Data-driven insights: Modern advertisers demand detailed, real-time audience metrics and campaign analytics to optimize performance and demonstrate ROI. These insights, ranging from demographic profiles to behavioral trends, are critical for refining media plans and proving the value of ad spend.
- Real-time adaptability: In a fast-paced digital environment, advertisers value the ability to pivot campaigns instantly with minimal friction. Whether responding to market changes, consumer feedback, or unexpected events, this level of flexibility is non-negotiable.
- Accountability: The modern media buyer prioritizes measurable outcomes. Every campaign must demonstrate its impact, whether through foot traffic attribution, engagement rates, or sales lift, ensuring every dollar spent is justified and effective.
While OOH advertising retains its enduring strengths — such as broad reach, unmissable visuals, and premium placement — combining these core strengths with the granularity, responsiveness, and transparency would make the medium more easily accessible to digital-native buyers.
The OOH advantage: Connecting the physical and digital
OOH’s core strength is its ability to reach audiences in the real world, delivering messages in moments that matter—whether during a morning commute, while shopping, or at a live event. With the added agility enabled by its digital transformation, OOH has become more dynamic than ever. Advertisers can now run campaigns that respond to live events and trends, adapt to environmental factors like weather, and update creative dynamically to keep messaging fresh. We’ve seen some iconic examples of this in 2024, which we highlighted in this blog, but here are a few examples:
Decathlon turned outages into adventures
When the world was hit by a major IT outage in July, sporting goods retailer Decathlon turned a tech fail into a win with a witty DOOH campaign. Mimicking Microsoft’s error screen message (infamously dubbed the ‘blue screen of death’), the brand switched its OOH buys within 24 hours of the crisis.
H&M and Charli XCX dazzled with their surprise Times Square takeover
In November, H&M pulled off an unforgettable Times Square takeover with a surprise collaboration featuring global popstar Charli XCX. The event celebrated the re-opening of H&M’s flagship Times Square store and the launch of its Holiday collection, blending music, fashion, and bold OOH to create a can’t-miss spectacle. With just 30 minutes’ notice shared via social media and in select H&M stores, thousands of fans rushed to the heart of New York City to catch the show.
This unique ability to resonate in physical spaces makes OOH indispensable, especially when paired with advancements, like unified audience measurement with impression-based metrics that help bring OOH in line with digital standards, and flexible buying, which allows advertisers to activate and adapt OOH campaigns on the fly, and data from mobile devices, geolocation services and others to deliver personalized content to specific audience sets.
Selling the future: rethinking the OOH playbook
Despite the many advancements brought on by OOH’s digital transformation, to thrive in today’s fast-evolving advertising landscape, media owners must shift from a traditional sales approach and align with the needs of modern buyers. While this shift won’t happen overnight, here are a few strategies that media owners can start with:
Flexible and tailored buying options
Providing customizable packages based on specific audience segments, geographic locations, or unique campaign objectives can help reinforce your network’s value and effectiveness to advertisers. Giving advertisers the ability to build a campaign that fits their unique goals not only delivers more pointed results but also allows you to charge premium pricing for custom campaign setups.
Agile campaign delivery and management
The ability to accommodate creative, non-standard campaigns not only builds trust with advertisers but also positions OOH as a flexible and adaptable medium. Offering flexibility in campaign duration, placements, and messaging allows you to deliver OOH campaigns that reflect the precision and responsiveness of digital-first strategies.
Technology-driven optimization
Adopting technology-driven optimization will be pivotal in transforming OOH into a smarter, more competitive medium. This includes data-triggered campaigns that allow advertisers to target specific audiences and behaviours, dynamic pricing models that adjust rates based on demand and performance to drive revenue, and real-time campaign optimizations to meet targets while maximizing fill rates. Finally, combining these capabilities with robust analytics and reporting tools that demonstrate performance will turn OOH into a modern, indispensable part of any media strategy.
Staying ahead: Strategies for long-term growth
To secure its position as an essential advertising medium, OOH media owners should build a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement, embracing new technologies and shifting market dynamics. Here are a few strategies to drive long-term growth:
Balance stability and agility
Combine traditional, slot-based campaigns with dynamic, flexible placements. This dual approach allows you to ensure stable revenue streams by maintaining relationships with existing advertisers, while opening new revenue streams by attracting advertisers seeking flexibility for short-term or event-driven OOH campaigns.
Cultivate adaptability
Foster a mindset of flexibility within your teams and processes. This includes rethinking traditional sales models to offer more customizable packages and pricing structures, as well as continuously integrating new technologies and capabilities that enable flexible selling strategies.
Strengthen cross-channel integration
Make your inventory easier to buy to foster collaboration with digital platforms that create unified, multi-channel campaigns, seamlessly connecting OOH with online and mobile experiences. Offer attribution metrics that demonstrate how OOH drives brand awareness, sales, and online engagement.
Enhance measurement and accountability
Standardize impressions-based metrics and provide transparent reporting that demonstrates results, aligning OOH with the accountability of digital advertising. Incorporate real-time dashboards that allow advertisers to monitor campaign performance and make adjustments as needed.
Leverage AI and automation
Begin evaluating how new technologies, like AI and automation, can help make operating your network more efficient. For instance, leveraging AI to accelerate manual-heavy processes, like reviewing and analyzing vast data sets or conducting creative optimization. Implementing automation to make purchasing OOH inventory as seamless as digital ads can also increase efficiency and open up inventory to new buyers.
The road forward
The future of OOH advertising isn’t just about surviving in a digital-first world; it’s about thriving by embracing change. By leveraging new technologies, offering greater flexibility, and prioritizing audience-focused strategies, OOH can continue to grow and capture the attention of advertisers seeking impactful and dynamic ways to reach their audiences. The future of OOH is undoubtedly bright, but unlocking its full potential requires a shift in mindset and a willingness to embrace new approaches to selling and delivering value.
